38 Mr.W. S. Macleay on the Comparative Anatomy 



cum Primatibus conjunxit, caeterum moribus et ingenio im- 

 mensnm distans." M. Cuvier also, alluding to the remarkable 

 structure of the arteries in the limbs of the Sloth, says : " Cette 

 structure se rencontrant aussi dans les loris dont la demarche 

 n'est gu^re moins paresseuse, il serait possible qu'elle exerfdt 

 quelque influence sur la lenteur des mouvemens*." Having 

 thus established an affinity in the Sloth to the genus Stenops 

 among the Primates, we find Hermann again saying, in the same 

 page, " Anomalum Bradypodis genus cum Pecoribus connecte- 

 rem ob quatuor ruminantes ventriculos : " and we find Cuvier 

 in the Regne Animal alluding to the same relation t. Hence I 

 conceive that the Bradypodce will be allowed to connect the 

 Primates and Ungulata. But Hermann, p. 64, connects the 

 Bradypoda with Myrmecophaga, as well on account of the strong 

 nails reflexed under the palm and incapable of separate motion, 

 as of their deficiency of incisors. In this opinion he is followed 

 by Desmarest, Blainville, and Cuvier. Indeed, as Desmarest 

 says, the fossil animal MegalonyxX makes the direct transition 

 from the Sloth to the Ant-Eater; while on the other hand^the 

 genus Echidna, which was described first by Shaw as a Myrme- 

 cophaga, and then by Home as an Ornithorhynchus, is universally 

 now allowed to be the link between these two genera. A number 

 of circumstances have made naturalists consider the Ornitho- 



* M. de Blainville, both in the Bull. de. la Soc. Phil. 18l6, and in the 3rd table of 

 his Principes d' Anatomie Comparee, calls them, Quadrumanes Anomaux organises 

 pour grimper. 



t In the Lefons d' Anatomie Comparee, M . Cuvier makes his family of Tardigrades to 

 be the means of transition from the Edentes to his Pachi/dermes. In the Regne Animal, 

 he places them among the Edentes, with the remark, that the whole of this group are 

 furnished with " de gros ongles qui embrassent I'extremit^ des doigts, et se rap- 

 prochent plus ou moins de la nature des Sabots." Linnaeus, as it is well known, 

 placed them among his Bruta, with the Elephant and Rhinoceros. 



X See Art. Megatherium, Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 



rhynchus 



